Neurotransmitters

I've always thought neurotransmitters were so cool---what a clever way to transmit electrical impulses across what is, essentially, a repeatedly-broken circuit, right? We watched the animations on this page

and read some good explanations about neurotransmitters here and the action potential here. We drew lots of diagrams (because my kids like diagrams).

Neuron Models with licorice and fruit leather, and Neural Connections drawing

Abe's neuron

There are so many ways to model a neuron, and I don't know that this one is particularly better than any other, except that I do like the way the myelin sheath fits neatly around the axon in this model. We used fruit leather for the soma, and the pull-apart type of licorice for the dendrites and axon. The regular Red Vines (they are hollow) allow the thin pull-apart licorice to be threaded through. Fun!

Ky's neuron

Daisy is so proud of hers!

Seb's neuron

I should add that the neurons aren't the only nerve cells worth talking about! One day when we were reviewing neurons, Malachi said, "Nobody appreciates the glia" [sad face]. It's true. Poor, poor glia. We made sure we appreciated them (and in fact, our model contains them---the myelin sheath is made by one type of glial cell).

Here's a good article about glia.

We also drew pictures like this, which I got the idea for . . . somewhere . . . ? It's to illustrate (in much-simplified form) the complexity of the neural network---how the chains of neurons aren't just nice neat pathways, in other words.